Friday, June 17, 2011

he Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology is the Vatican body responsible for the care of ancient cemeteries and other artifacts from the early Christian centuries. They recently unveiled this 3rd century hypogeum, or underground burial chamber, that belonged to the Aurelia family of Rome.Raffaella Giuliani Archeologist, Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology:

“The paintings represent the lives of the Aureli, as we can see from the paintings they were a wealthy family that owned many houses, in the painting we can see the construction of these villas and gardens from imperial Rome. These scenes are inspired by the Homeric poems, in particular by the story of Odysseus.”

For the past 10 years, a team of archeologists has been restoring this hypogeum that dates back to the third century but was only discovered in 1919. The Vatican and the team of archeologists say the restoration of this underground chamber has given some insights to the Aurelia family and the transition of paganism to Christianity.

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